After drone attacks by Yemen which knocked out more than half of Saudi crude output, the index opened down 2.3% but later pared some losses.
Sunday’s decline extended a losing spree for Saudi stocks, which in recent weeks have been hit by expensive valuations, weak oil prices and concerns about the economic outlook.
The Saudi market was down 1.3%. The index has lost all its gains this year and is down about 18% from its 2019 high of 9,403 points seen in early May.
Other Persian Gulf markets also reacted negatively to the attacks, with Kuwait’s premier index down 0.4% and Dubai stocks falling 0.5%, although they recovered from sharper intraday losses.
Yemen’s Ansarullah forces launched drone attacks on Saturday morning at two Saudi oil facilities in Abqaiq in eastern Saudia Arabia and Khurais northeast of Riyadh, disrupting Saudi oil production and exports. The attacks are said to be in retaliation of Saudi's continued war against Yemeni people.
Earlier, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's interior ministry stated that the fire at two Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais was caused by drone attacks. The official added that the blaze was brought under control by the company's security forces.
Saudi Aramco is the state-owned oil enterprise which operates and controls the majority of the kingdom's refinery production and oilfields.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000 lives over the past four and a half years.
Saudi US-backed war on Yemen has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.
ZZ/PR